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Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Chinese Scientists Warn of New Virus from Bats "NeoCov"


Sat 29 Jan 2022 | 04:55 PM
Rana Atef

Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wuhan University warned of a new type of Coronavirus from bats called NeoCov, here's all you need to know about the new virus.

Scientists recognized the new virus as it is found in a group of bats in South Africa and it could threaten humanity in the near future.

The soon to be peer reviewed study expressed that the newly named NeoCov virus is similar to the Mers which was identified for the first time in 2012 in KSA.

"In this study, we unexpectedly found that NeoCoV and its close relative, PDF-2180-CoV, can efficiently use some types of bat Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and, less favourably, human ACE2 for entry," the researches expressed.

It added: "Our study demonstrates the first case of ACE2 usage in MERS-related viruses, shedding light on a potential bio-safety threat of the human emergence of an ACE2 using "MERS-CoV-2" with both high fatality and transmission rate."

Last year, The Guardian published a new report warning the world of a new mysterious and fatal infectious virus in China called Nipah.

The executive director of the Dutch Access to Medicine Foundation Jayasree KIyer explained, “an outbreak of the Nipah virus in China, with a fatality rate of up to 75%, is potentially the next big pandemic risk.”

“Nipah virus is another emerging infectious disease that causes great concern,” she highlighted, adding, Nipah could blow any moment. The next pandemic could be a drug-resistant infection.”

The new virus can cause severe respiratory problems and encephalitis. It can cause damages to the organ it infects by at least 40%.

The main carriers of such a virus are fruit bats. Palm trees could be one of the main houses of such bats, that’s why the virus outbreak occurred in Bangladesh and India.